Carte Blanche to Rossy de Palma
A Look at Ibero-American Works from the Abattoirs’ Collections
To mark the latest edition of the Nouveau Printemps festival, the Abattoirs are giving artist Rossy de Palma carte blanche to explore their collections of works by Hispanic artists.
The Abattoirs’ collections, where modern art and contemporary creation converge, are unique in that, since the museum’s founding as a FRAC, they have developed a strong focus on artists from the Spanish and, more broadly, Spanish-speaking art scenes. This focus is rooted in the region’s history and its geographical and cultural proximity to Spain. Works by historic Spanish artists, including Pablo Picasso, Manolo Millares, Eduardo Arroyo, Antoni Clavé, Equipo Crónica, and Miquel Barceló, form a strong original core from which the collections have gradually expanded. Over the past decade, renewed attention has been given to this focus, broadening it to include women artists and the Ibero-American world. Thus, artists such as Ouka Leele, Pilar Albarracín, Alexander Apóstol, and Ximena Garrido-Lecca have been added to the collections, allowing for the creation of new narratives and a broader perspective on art history.
This exhibition, conceived as a dialogue with Rossy de Palma, offers a fresh interpretation of this body of work through the lens of her unique sensibility, shaped by an intimate knowledge of the artists and their works. It is part of an ongoing series of invitations extended to artists from diverse backgrounds to engage with the collections of Les Abattoirs, offering a new and embodied perspective.
Curated by Tatiana Rybaltchenko, Curator, Les Abattoirs
